Americans’ Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push

Uganda, a Christian majority nation, hosted three American evangelicals in March 2009 who gave talks describing the gay agenda and its threat to Bible-based values and the traditional African family. The men, widely discredited in the US, spoke to large, rapt audiences, but claim they did not intend what followed a month later: the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 which threatened to hang homosexuals. The bill, which imperiled foreign aid to Uganda, seemed to revive homophobia in the country – beatings, blackmail, and even so-called correctional rape became more pronounced after its introduction. In response, the American preachers tried to distance themselves, claiming their intent was to offer parenting advice for families with gay children. Ugandan commentators explain that the Americans underestimated the extent of homophobia in the country as well as how threats to family and children could resonate for Africans. Not the first time preachers have misread another culture. – YaleGlobal